Supporting accountability in American Democracy by tracking President Trump's campaign promises until it's either no longer necessary or no longer possible

Friday, January 27, 2017

"This is a broken promise. It ain't immediate anymore."

Well, we're officially one very long week into the 45th presidency of the United States. Civil society remains riled, international institutions remain stoic but preparing to adapt, and economists remain, as usual, cautiously confident in their models and ultimately rather confused.

Anyone living above-ground knows that way more has gone down in the Oval Office this week than what's mentioned here. However, to avoid making my 50 loyal readers burn their eyeballs out from too much screening, we're going to stay focused on the concrete "kepts" and "brokens," rather than track the weekly progress of every item on the president's list of campaign promises.

Kept. One of the least surprising of this week's rash of executive actions was President Trump's decision not to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership. One of the pillars of Bernie Sanders' campaign was the "disastrous" potential impact of this new free trade agreement on both American and foreign workers, and by the end of the campaign, Hillary was on board as well.

Kept. On Monday, President Trump signed a presidential memorandum to implement a 90-day hiring freeze in the federal government. However, its impact will be neither immediate nor comprehensive. It exempts military personnel, as well as all jobs rather vaguely deemed "necessary to meet national security or public safety responsibilities." To put that in perspective, as of 2014, 68.4% of the 2.1 million people employed by the government work for defense- and security-related agencies. Nearly 1.5 million of them are uniformed military personnel.

Note: While the issuance of President Trump's orders to build the wall (Promise #65) and plans to make Mexico pay for it (Promise #66) make it a tempting topic for this week's installment, technically these promises fall into the On a (Long-Term) Deadline category. That is to say, it ain't over til the 2020 inaugural celebrity guest sings.

Broken, at least for the moment, but likely going forward as well. This is more a about feasibility than the president's innate ability to put such measures in place. As Anthony Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU, laid out for Rachel Maddow:

"How is he going to find them? The criminals are not just lined up in some database. He's going to have to comb through immigrant communities. How is he going to do that? Through dragnet searches, through unlawful searches and seizures."

Broken. In his first major interview after the election, then-President-Elect Trump said to the New York Times about prosecuting Hillary Clinton, "Well, there was a report that somebody said that I'm not enthused about it. Look, I want to move forward, I don’t want to move back. And I don’t want to hurt the Clintons. I really don’t." Predictably enough, many of Trump's most fervent supporters during the campaign are less than thrilled.

Broken, unless he meant... actually, I don't know what interpretation of that promise would possibly create enough slack to consider it kept. As of Wednesday, Chicago's murder rate continues to rise, and President Trump has now threatened (via tweet) to "send in the Feds" if that doesn't change immediately. Like, tomorrow. Unfortunately for the man of action in office, the lack of obvious correlation between the usual crime rate factors means this issue might actually require nuanced thinking on race relations, creative (and expensive) urban development strategies, and, wait for it... wait for it... wait for it... keep waiting for it... time.

What can we do this week?

Follow and share the findings of blogs like this one -- and its much better-funded counterparts at the Washington Post and Politifact.

Get involved with the Natural Resources Defense Council. It's a wide-ranging organization, so use their "filter by..." tool to focus on the environmental issues that matter to you.

About Me

California-grown, Paris-based. Graduate student in International Security, with concentrations in Project Management and European Studies. Passionate about international affairs, civil rights, freedom of the press, and film history.